I was pondering the time of year, and how Christmas evokes so many memories of times past and this song came into my head. I expect we have all lost someone, parent, brother, sister, etc. who we remember at this time of the year so the song seemed really poignant. It was especially so for me this year as I had to move from my home of 54 years into a dinky little bungalow, and as yet I have no memories formed here, and as Christmas approaches I have been dwelling a lot on the past. However, I don't want you to feel maudlin so take inspiration from the song's theme, or from the lyrics. There are a lot of words mentioned in the song, that you could use to inspire something creative. Or you could create something to show us what you would do if you could save time in a bottle and spend it doing your favourite thing, or with your best friend, lover, child etc. A scrapbook page of memories perhaps, or something more practical relating to time. You can choose one of the words in the lyrics and create a theme around it.Have a good read through and see what you can impress us with. I will be honest and tell you some of the team were not too keen on the idea, until they started thinking about it, so please don't just pass us by and not bother, have a good old think and see what you can come up with. There are so many Christmas card challenges at the moment, and this will be a nice deviation from those, you also have a whole month to think of something. So when you are all Christmased out and want to do something a bit different you can join us with your creation. Please remember to tell us in your post how the song's lyrics have inspired what you come up with. Go on we dare you! As this is a month long challenge the whole team will be voting on whose entries they want to win or take out top spots, if there are enough entrants we may have a Top Ten instead of a Top Five. We are sponsored by our lovely teamie Kim Reygate. As Kim told me 'I have been lucky enough to work with some fantastic companies during this last year, both teaching and making samples and most of whom are represented in the prize, so I would be more than happy to donate them to Crafty Cardmakers', represented in the list are Clarity, HobbyArt, Sir Stampalot, Stampcraft and Woodware, some of whom will be sponsoring us in 2013, so watch this space!The items in the prize are Items from the top of the photo Blue Magic stamp 2 Embossing Folders2 Butterfly StampsFluffy Stuff 2 ColorBox QueuesColourBox Moulding MatMagnolia StampPetal Stamps

We are also sponsored as usual by Milk Coffee Stamps with their usual prize of 5 digi images of the winner's choice.

Milk Coffee Stamps is a digital image shop specialising in cute and girly images. We provide high quality digital images with high resolution so you could resize at a big enough size for your project. We have many different image styles; sophisticated lady, cute girl, whimsical image, cute stuff, fairytale creature, and many other varied themes so they can fit many different crafting styles.

So after all that waffling, it's over to the team to hopefully inspire you. They have worked hard on this so please do stop by their blogs and leave them some love!

I used Time and Memories of Times gone by as my Inspiration from the Song.MaryJ (from Our sponsor Milk, Coffee's DT)

From the lyrics, I took inspiration from "there never seems to be enough time To do the things you want to do". I used to ride a bike a lot as a child and have always wanted to take it up again - but never seem to have the time to go and buy one! So, I chose this MilkCoffee stamp calledLady with Antique Bicycle as it was such a perfect fit! I used papers from the My Mind's Eye Sweetest ThingHoney

I love the song and have done for may years. For this challenge, I decided to choose some words: If I had a box, just for wishes ... So, I made a box! I've used a Sizzix, and a Personal Impressions embossing folder to emboss some Coredinations White Wash card and some Spellbinder's dies to cut some shimmery card.Yvonne

I chose verse 4 from the song as my inspiration for this hanging. Picking out the word Dreams as my focus.Mynnette

I used the last verse as my inspiration and created a frame to house a recent photo of my husband and myself from my sister's wedding. He is the person that I most definitely want to spend time and all eternity with! Betty Chan

The song 'Time In A Bottle' , I used clock, bottle and stamped with Magnolia Tilda she look thinking of the past. Hope you like it.

Well, the song mentioned bottle, so how could I resist? I have made a label to go over a bottle of wine that I am giving a friend. I'm not sure if we can trap time in the bottle but I know we shall have a good time sharing it.Tracey

My hubby's birthday was on Dec. 6 so I used the song to inspire his card. I chose to use the word "Time" as my inspiration and included a tag with a clock on it. Besides papers & tags from HOTP I also used fibers from EK Success and a tiny dolphin charm.

I made a sketch in my journal (I am very much a journalling novice!) of my interpretation of "Time in a Bottle". I sketched it in pencil first then coloured with Promarkers.Sharon

Inspired by the whole song I used one of my favourite sentiments 'Live well, Laugh often, Love much' to make a wallhanging. The roses are made using a Marianne die as are the leafy flourish. The background is a crackled paint effect and I have used Distress Inks to colour and distress.Jackie

When we first discussed the challenge I was a bit stumped, but then decided to just take it literally - and for my card, I used a cd image, a photograph, rubber stamps and distress inks.Annette

Inspired by the whole song I made a Bottle Card with clock die cut from Quickutz .

You will need to visit my blog for a detailed description, but as you can see it's a clock! Nuff said, lol

We won't be back now until 7th January, so all of us at Crafty Cardmakers want to thank you for your continued involvement in our challenges and to wish all of you out there a very Merry Christmas or Bright Yule and a healthy, happy and hopefully prosperous New Year. See you in 2013

PLEASE NOTE THE SONG YOU ARE TO TAKE INSPIRATION FROM IS TIME IN A BOTTLE BY JIM CROCE AND NOT ANY OTHER SONG, SADLY A FEW ENTRANTS HAVE PICKED THEIR OWN SONGS TO BE INSPIRED BY

Congratulations to you all, please feel free to display our Winner’s badge or Top 5 badge on your blogs. Would the two winners please contact me at the address in the sidebar stating the number of the challenge, the title and which prize they have won in the subject line.

Don’t forget to call back at 12 noon for our last challenge of 2012. I won’t give too much away, but let’s just say you will need to put your thinking caps on and get your creative juices flowing.

Monday, 26 November 2012

Our Challenge this fortnight, hosted by Fiona, is a photo inspiration challenge.

Make a card or project inspired by the following photo. You can take inspiration from any part of it really, from the actual image or from the colours.

Please remember to check the rules and make sure you follow the criteria.Please also remember to mention Crafty Cardmakers in your blog post. Mr. Linky is set to block anyone that doesn't link back to Crafty Cardmakers in their post, so if you have problems please check first that you have linked correctly.

I have been drawing since a child and studied graphics at College many years ago, I now work as a Medical photographer part time but my love was always drawing. I started cardmaking about 4yrs ago when I bought my daughter a cardmaking kit which we did together, but I’m afraid I got the bug! My daughter preferred scrapbooking. I then started looking online at other blogs and this then became my passion and I loved sharing my cards with likeminded people. I love stamping and loved finding images, but sometimes I could not find what I wanted so I started to draw myself. This then has become my second addiction and I have never looked back, I love thinking of new images, and its just fabulous to see others take them and make them into beautiful works of art. Long may it continue!

$15 Gift Certificate to the Crop Stop Store If you’re passionate about paper-crafting whether it be scrapbooking your memories, making cards or altered art, CropStop is your one-stop solution. We offer an extensive selection of dies, embossing folders, inks, stamps and punches by all the popular manufacturers and the CropStop die and embossing folder storage solutions Pocketz Pages™ to keep everything organized. Our selection of embellishments and adhesives is continually expanding and we are excited to be the home of the colorful Ribbon Candy™. In need of inspiration? Visit the CropStop Gallery, Blog or Message Board and participate in a competition or class. If you have questions concerning your machine, we have a team of experts waiting to help you. Message Board - come and meet like minded paper-crafters.Blog - we have prizes and giveaways every week.Gallery - lots of inspiration from all over the world.YouTube - demonstrations, how-to’s, projects and much more.FaceBook page - be the first to know of new arrivals in the store.Twitter - we always find something worth Twittering! CropStop ships internationally as well as domestic. Our personalized customer service is only one of our strengths. Call or come visit us at www.CropStop.com and see what’s new in the world of paper-crafting.

I decorated a polystyrene cone with white and turquoise ribbon. I added a lacy scalloped border at the bottom which is cut with a Magnolia die. I added some hat pins and gathered ribbon at the top of the cone fastened by two hat pins.

A card made with an image from the Paper Shelter called Cookies for Santa and designer papers from NitWit called Holiday Charm. My inspiration is both from the big wonderful tree in the image and the soft pastel colours.

I took my inspiration for my card from the colour and the tree. I used Indigo Blu's "Baroque Christmas Tree" and "Snowflakes". I randomly stamped the snowflakes in turquoise and white and heat embossed the tree with Moon Glow embossing powder.Jack

I also took my inspiration from the gorgeous colours in the photo but instead of making a card I got out my beads and made a necklace for a friend.Suze

I took my inspiration from the colour combo and also the Christmas tree. I made an origami Christmas tree which I blinged up with glitter and gems and mounted onto a die cut tag.Sharon

I used a DL sized card blank and die cut the fab Memory Box christmas tree to leave an aperture in the front of the card. Behind the aperture, I fixed a piece of aqua card and then added the die cut tree back into the aperture on top of the aqua card. A pretty bow, sparkly gems and a sentiment stamped in teal Stazon completes the card.

I used a Memento Bahama Blue ink pad to stamp this Papermania Christmas tree which I then cut out and mounted onto the base card. The sentiment is from the same set and stamped with the same ink. To finish I add glitter, using a Quickie glue pen. Jackie

I used a hot off the press stamp, Memory Box and Spellbinders dies and card and paper from my scrap box to make my card this time. The size is 6" x 6", and has a folded back front.Kimx

I took my inspiration from the colours and the Christmas Tree .Annette

I took inspiration from the colours in the picture and I stamped a christmas saying in black.Carole

I loved the gold on the chairs with the beautiful turquoise - so took that as my inspiration. My focal point is a beautiful Christmas tree ornament I found whilst looking for new decorations for my tree.